Prague, 25/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - At its meeting in Prague, the G7 (which brings together the finance ministers of the world's most industrialised countries) said that the monitoring of the euro's exchange rate would continue, and the coordinated "interventions" on the market between the EU, United States and Japan, similar to last Friday's (see EUROPE of 23 September, p.7), would continue if necessary to take the euro to an adequate parity. This means that the G7 shares the opinion, expressed on several occasions by the EU's monetary authorities, that the euro's exchange rate does not correspond to the real force and vitality of the Community's economy. The G7 confirmed that economic prospects were good both in Europe and the United States and that signs of a recovery were evident in Japan, and that, at the same time, inflation remains "under control".
In addition, the G7 urged OPEC countries to take the appropriate measures to bring the price of oil down to a more reasonable and especially more stable level. Following consultations with the American authorities, the President-in-Office of the EU's EcoFin Council said that he would be sending a message to OPEC in the coming days, on behalf of the Fifteen, in anticipation of the OPEC Summit of Caracas.